On 12 May 2008, a severe earthquake struck Sichuan in China. Many people donated blood for the first time, leading us to question whether these donors might become repeat donors in the future. The return pattern of post-earthquake first-time donors (PEFTD) was compared with that of first-time donors (FTD) in a comparable period.Demographic characteristics, transfusion-transmissible infection rates and 1-year return rates were compared between 5147 PEFTD (5/13-5/19, 2008) and 3176 FTD (5/13-5/19, 2009) from five Chinese blood centres using chi-squared tests. Adjusted logistic regression was used to detect earthquake effect on donor return.Post-earthquake first-time donors were more frequently between 26 and 45 years, men, and better educated compared with the control group. Slightly higher but not statistically significant increased rates of hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) (0·87% vs. 0·50%, P=0·054), hepatitis C virus (HCV) (0·70% vs. 0·63%, P=0·414), syphilis (0·9% vs. 0·7%, P=0·489) and lower rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (0·31% vs. 0·60%, P=0·078) reactivity were detected for PEFTD. The 1-year return rate for PEFTD was significantly lower than that of the controls (8·0% vs. 13·0%, P<0·001). After adjusting for demographic factors, donation volume and sites, the PEFTD were less likely to return in 1 year than the controls (OR: 0·520; 95% CI: 0·442, 0·611).Post-earthquake first-time donors may be less likely to donate again without continuing motivation strategies. Further studies on PEFTD's lack of motivation to return for donation are needed to design recruitment strategies to convert PEFTD to become repeat donors to continuously replenish the blood supply.
The latest iteration of the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP Version 8) was released in December 2021. Compared with the other satellite precipitation products in the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) era, it is imperative to comprehensively assess the merits and drawbacks of GSMaP V8, as the timely analysis is significant for both users and algorithm developers. This study conducts a multi-scale evaluation and comparison of daily and hourly precipitation from GSMaP V8, GSMaP V7 and the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) V06 across mainland China and eight climatic regions. The evaluation encompasses four aspects: detection of rain/no-rain events, quantification of precipitation amount, capturing diurnal cycle features, and monitoring extreme events. The results indicate that: (1) GSMaP V8 excels in distinguishing rain/no-rain events on both daily and hourly scales during summer and accurately quantifying winter precipitation, surpassing the performance of GSMaP V7 and IMERG V06. (2) In describing the diurnal cycle feature, GSMaP V8 outperforms V7 in eastern TP and the southern part of northeastern China, and surpasses IMERG V06 in the northeastern and northern China. (3) Compared with the IMERG V06, GSMaP V8 demonstrates superior agreement with gauge observations in monitoring the extreme precipitation and drought events in 2022. (4) Limitations of GSMaP V8 include diminished capacity to identify rain/no-rain events during winter in northwest China when compared to GSMaP V7. Additionally, it exhibits lower accuracy in estimating precipitation amount and diurnal cycle features over the TP in comparison to IMERG V06. While this study presents an early evaluation of GSMaP V8, the knowledge gained regarding its strengths and weaknesses holds crucial importance for the selection and application of satellite precipitation products in the hydrometeorology field during the GPM era.
On May 12, 2008, a severe earthquake hit Sichuan province in China. A post-earthquake survey was conducted to study the earthquake's effect on blood donor behaviour and stress at three blood centres at varying distances from the epicentre.A questionnaire was developed to assess donor post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) and attitudes toward giving blood. Responses were compared by centre and donor characteristics using multivariate logistic regression techniques.Of all 17 456 donors, the overall prevalence of PTSD was 13.2%. Donors who knew someone killed or injured by the earthquake were 2.1 times more likely to have PTSD than others (95% CI: 1.8-2.4). 85.2% of donors cited the earthquake as their reason for donating. 16.1% of donors felt it acceptable to be less honest about one's health history in an emergency. After adjusting for PTSD, geographic and demographic characteristics, the donors knowing someone killed or injured by the earthquake were 1.4 times (95% CI: 1.2-1.7) more likely to cite the earthquake as reason for donating, and 1.8 times (95% CI: 1.5-2.1) more likely to accept being less honest about one's health history in case of national emergency.The psychological and behavioural impacts of the earthquake on blood donors extended far from the epicentre. After a disaster, it is important to emphasize that donors must be truthful on the donor questionnaire as some donors appear willing to be less than honest when they perceive an increased need for blood products.
'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(23.036 .093 25.536)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(45.87 1.273 16.18)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(69.945 .996 12.078)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(20.66 -19.689 31.932)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)
